Jeff Melsheimer

Jeff Melsheimer is a trial lawyer who litigates high stakes legal matters across a variety of practice areas including intellectual property, antitrust, Lanham Act, False Claims Act, tort, and complex contract and business disputes.  

Jeff plays an integral role on every team he is on. He has tried cases through every phase of litigation, from complaint filing to trial to appeal, and has led efforts on writing briefs, complaints, and appeals. Likewise, Jeff has extensive standup experience arguing in federal and state court, examining witnesses at trial, and taking depositions.

LITIGATION WORK

At Susman Godfrey, Jeff has faced off against industry behemoths:

• Jeff and a team from Susman Godfrey team obtained a $266 million jury verdict for the City of Baltimore against opioid distributors, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, following a months’ long jury trial in Baltimore. This was the only successful verdict any plaintiff obtained against these two defendants. Playing a key role at trial, Jeff examined a witness on day one, setting the tone for a successful case. Including the $266 million verdict, Baltimore — which forged its own path by bringing in Susman Godfrey and proceeding outside the federal opioid multidistrict litigation — has recovered more than $700 million (the $266 jury verdict plus over $427 million in settlements with other defendants). Read more about this work in Bloomberg Law, USA Today,  and Law.com.
• Jeff resolved a patent case against Samsung, leading the day-to-day efforts of the trial team and taking depositions of key witnesses.
• Jeff has litigated patent cases the three major US cellular carriers. In these matters, he deposed various 30(b)(6) and expert witnesses, wrote dispositive motions, and argued at the Markman hearing.
• Jeff secured millions of dollars for a proposed class of insurance policy owners against Genworth Life Insurance Company over allegations of breach of contract.

Jeff’s ongoing representations include:

• Representing a putative class of healthcare providers in antitrust claims against MultiPlan, Inc. and alleged co-conspirators for underpaying out-of-network reimbursements.
• Representing a patent owner in a patent infringement case against Apple.
• Representing a putative class of insurance policy owners over allegations of breach of contract.
• Representing InSinkErator LLC in a false advertising case under the Lanham Act.

BACKROUND

Jeff joined Susman Godfrey after clerking for the Honorable Alan D Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Jeff is a member of Judge Albright’s Working Group, which collaborates to provide input on rules governing patent proceedings in Waco, Texas. Jeff graduated cum laude and Order of the Coif from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as an associate editor of the Texas Law Review. While in law school, Jeff was an active member of the Children’s Rights Clinic, where he sat first chair as an attorney ad litem for children in termination of parental rights cases. Before law school, Jeff graduated cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in Political Science and minored in Business Economics.

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